


A Wild And Fragile Thing

by Zoe_Grimm



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Angst and Fluff and Smut, F/F, Mid-Season Finale, Rough Sex, Season 3, So literally everything, Swan Queen - Freeform, all the feels, saying goodbye
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-08
Updated: 2017-10-08
Packaged: 2019-01-04 14:43:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,357
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12170961
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zoe_Grimm/pseuds/Zoe_Grimm
Summary: Regina knows that she will have to let Emma go. She looks around and in her eyes, the whole town might as well be a graveyard and she its gardener. Planting corpses. Picking apples. Every day she tells herself that she's imagining things, doesn't feel a thing and that the pain is barely there. Every day, it still hurts. Until today. Today doesn't hurt, it's killing her.





	A Wild And Fragile Thing

**Author's Note:**

> My first SwanQueen story ever, let me know what you think! :)

''Why don't you open up to people?'', Emma once asks, angry. Regina looks at her for a very long moment before walking away. She already has her first love, her father and her only friend haunting her from their graves, she doesn't need to add another one to that collection. Her vault holds enough hearts and other broken things as it is.

She looks around and in her eyes, the whole town might as well be a graveyard and she its gardener. Planting corpses. Picking apples. In a way, she killed everyone around. She can still feel Daniel's ghostly fingers going limp between hers as her mother crushed his heart, can still feel Maleficent's skeleton claws raking over her ribcage and the walls of the cave she kept her in, trying to get in,  _trying to get out..._

Every day Regina tells herself that she's imaging things, doesn't feel a thing and that the pain is barely there. Every day, it still hurts. Until today. Today doesn't hurt,  _it's killing her._

There's a new curse in town, stemming from the father of all villains, Peter Pan. It's coming for them like a clock ticking away and Regina knows that when it strikes, she will have to be the one to pay the price. It seems that half the town doesn't see this, but she does, because she would know. After all, _she has done this before_.

She will have to say goodbye to her heart, to Henry, if she wants to be a hero this time. She really doesn't want to, but the way his eyes look up to her now convinced her otherwise. The one she loves most in all the realms, and she will have to let him go. But she cannot pay that price without adding further costs because the clock won't strike midnight until it's _both_  hands on the twelve. Emma. She has to send Emma away with Henry and the one thing she loves most becomes two.

She is searching for her all over town until she finds her, takes her hand and takes them away in a cloud of purple smoke. She doesn't have time for the delusion of a rescue mission. _No more Operation Cobras_. She is vaguely aware that this is a bad idea, that Emma is asking her a lot of questions including a lot of swear words, but she moves in to silence her with a kiss. Surprised ocean eyes widen to stare at her before they flutter closed, and the voice that was shouting _shouldn't shouldn't shouldn't_  in Regina's head fades away as their first kiss grows.

After all, Regina always has had an exceptional ability to disregard all consequences. Collateral damage is just a thing you learn to live with, if you _always do the bad thing anyways_. And be that damage to Regina's own heart. Oh, the holes she has torn into her intestines like this. The absolute void it tears into her very soul when Emma shifts to kiss her back and Regina invades a velvet mouth with her tongue, tangling her fingers in soft, blond hair...

They are up the stairs and on her bed before she can think, and Emma's back is painfully pressed against the headrest with Regina straddling her lap like a queen would her throne before either of them even know what they are doing. It's probably better this way. This way, Regina doesn't need to worry wether her teeth will leave unexplainable marks on Emma's neck because they do, this way she doesn't need to wonder wether Emma will ever remember that she was wearing the same shirt last tuesday as she takes it off her. Because Emma won't.

Regina's fingers are running over bare skin for what will be the first and the last time, trying to memorize, to take in every inch at once and commit them to thoughts that will surely drive her mad when this is over. She still takes everything, because she doesn't care. It doesn't matter if this is worth it, if the tiny sighs and soft moans and the way Emma says '' _Regina_ '' just that once, so different from all the other times she has ever spoken her name, will eventually outweigh her pain.The scope of ensuing misery  _doesn't matter_  when Regina takes off her own shirt and feels Emma cup a breast and struggle with the clasp of her bra. She removes it for her.

She couldn't be quite sure wether Emma has ever even done this before, but the blonde takes a nipple into her mouth without hesitation, suckling and scraping her teeth over Regina's chest. Running her hands over Regina's sides, her thighs. Reaching back to squeeze her ass and get the former queen out of those all-business-and-no-pleasure-pants. Cupping between her legs when she succeeds, somewhat questioningly, until Regina rocks right into her hand when she moves her hips yes, _yes she wants this_. She has been waiting for this for years. She wants those fingers inside of her, NOW.

She is still in Emma's lap when she feels herself being filled, reaches down to guide Emma's wrist and adds her fingers to her own clit. She comes so fast that riding Emma feels like flying. She does it all over again, velvet walls clenching down on Emma's fingers to keep them in place. But she is hungry for  _so_ much more.

She barely allows herself to come down from her second orgasm before she descends on Emma with teeth and claws and a feeling so wild one could almost call it love. Emma admits that she likes it rough and in that moment Regina loses herself, torn between Emma and the queen that still lives somewhere inside of her. But they both want the same thing.

They make Regina tear off Emma's clothes, marvel at the blood Regina draws on Emma's skin, _revel_  in the power Regina feels when she wraps her fingers around Emma's throat so tightly she can barely breathe. Regina couldn't be gentle if she wanted to be.  _And they love it._

She captures Emma's hands above her head and keeps them there. All it takes is a thought and a little bit of magic and Emma is tied to the bed as Regina roams over her body, the silken skin warm beneath her mouth but burning to the touch. She lowers her regal head knowing that every flick of her tongue, every twitch of her fingers inflicted on Emma will be another invisible bruise blooming on Regina's ribcage come morning. She doesn't mind, for a taste. For knowing that atleast this had been hers, _once upon a time.._.

Emma is delicious when she comes, writhing below Regina's mouth, mumbling words that don't make sense.  _I love you,_ she says, just like Daniel used to. With just the same look that used to be in Maleficent's eyes. Before both of them left her, because  _love is weakness, Regina._ Those are the words about love that she remembers the most. Another ghost. Another dead body in her vault.

"You will live", Regina says, not quite Emma's three words but as close as she can get, "you will live for me, with Henry, and you will be happy." Emma looks at her with wide ocean eyes again, little Alice lost in Wonderland. "But it won't be real. And I will _miss you."_ Regina leans in for a kiss and whispers  _"y_ _ou won't even remember who I am."_

She is standing in front of the town line as she erases herself from their memories. As she watches the yellow bug disappear behind a bend in the road as the world she built collapses under the weight of Pan's curse. Everything will be gone but her own memories. The day Henry ran away and came back with Emma is playing over and over in her mind, and all their other birthdays, and every dinner at Granny's, and every fight, and-  _'why don't you open up to people?', Emma once asks, angry. 'Because people always leave me',_ Regina thinks, and turns around to face her curse.


End file.
